Suzanne Livingston (London) - Making AI: More than Human and the More than Human Museum

In May 2019, the Barbican Centre in London launched a major exhibition (including over 150 projects and artworks, and ninety thousand visitors in the first three months) about artificial intelligence entitled AI: More than Human. Taking an approach which was global, cultural and historical, it was born from a collaboration between myself, my Tokyo based co-curator Maholo Uchida, and Barbican Immersive, a department dedicated to large scale exhibitions exploring the future of technology and culture. The exhibition is now on tour and since 2019 has traveled from the UK to China and back with several touring stops in between. It is currently showing in Barcelona at CCCB.

This presentation will tell the story of the show, the challenges we faced, and the responsibility we undertook with respect to public education in AI. It will also focus on its distinctive approach, synthesizing a “Western” perspective drawn from the UK and the US with an “Eastern” perspective drawn from China and Japan. This global view, based on an intercultural understanding of this vast subject matter, is at the heart of my own research interests and feels increasingly vital as countries around the world individually race to own the AI agenda at a global level.

The presentation will reflect on what more we could have done to infuse the visitor experience of the exhibition with AI, beyond it being the subject of the show. What other layers and dimensions could we have included? How might AI itself have inspired its re-telling? This will extend to the wider frame of museums themselves, based on my own career as a strategic advisor. What can a museum be, born first in the era of AI, without historic baggage, aged ideas of philanthropy, legacy, and human only perspective? How is history felt and manifest through AI? How does a museum, or whatever the equivalent institution be called, more radically open up our worlds?

Dr. Suzanne Livingston is a strategy consultant with twenty years of experience in helping organizations redefine their approach to brand, strategy, culture, innovation, and communication. She has worked at CEO level across sectors spanning technology, the arts, policy and education, and across markets including Europe, the United States, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, and the Middle East.

As Head of Strategy and later Global Principal at Wolff Olins, Suzanne built her experience working in technology with clients such as Sony Worldwide, Native Instruments, Reuters, PlayStation, and Ericsson and with cultural organizations including V&A, Whitney Museum of American Art, ICA Boston, Guggenheim, The Guardian, London Olympics 2012, Qatar Museums, and Southbank Centre. She led strategy projects to guide the move of the Whitney to the Highline, ICA Boston to the waterfront, and the relaunch of Southbank Centre London in line with the major renovation of Festival Hall.

More recently she has also been working with Somerset House on its organizational definition and social purpose. As an extension of her interest in technology, creativity, and positive social change, she was asked to be co-curator of the Barbican Centre’s AI: More than Human exhibition, which ran from May to August 2019, before beginning its international tour. It was the third-most popular exhibition in the Barbican’s history and received a significant amount of international media attention. Suzanne received her PhD in Philosophy from Warwick University focusing on sensory perception and cybernetic systems. She now works independently, advising and coaching organizations alongside writing and presenting on the topic of culture, technology, and the future.

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